Groundskeeper Ichigo
by HaveBookWillTravel
Summary: Ichigo really should have known better than to trust one of Urahara's contraptions. Now, he finds himself trapped in a world full of knock-off Hollows, a broken moon, and a bunch of fantastical technology that would have Geta-Boushi's head spinning. But the worst of it is, Ichigo has somehow gotten himself hired as a janitor at a combat school that trains a bunch of crazy kids.
1. Takin' Care of Business

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! To those who have me as a followed/favorited author and are coming in from one of my other stories, please forgive me. I know I suck at updating and then flitting off to another story like some demented hummingbird, but I can't really help myself. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm a shitty writer with a shitty work ethic.**

 **Now that that's out of the way, let me take a moment to introduce this story. After the _Bleach_ saga ended, I was left feeling pretty angry. The Thousand Year Blood War arc turned out to be... _underwhelming_ I suppose is the best way to put it. I love Tite Kubo for bringing us such a wonderful story and characters, but god-freakin' damn it, I know he could have executed his final arc much more masterfully than the debacle that was the TYBW. And that epilogue, with Babies Ever After and everything. I get that Kubo's not good with romance (I can totally relate to that), but Orihime? _Really_? You had a perfectly good childhood friend _right there!_ **

**Ahem, regardless of all that, I was left unsatisfied with the status quo and decided that Ichigo should not end up in a relationship that resulted in *shudder* Kurosaki Kazui. That kid scares me. Like, legitimately. I think it's the eyes. Either way, I seem to have a tendency to cross Ichigo over into a number of other stories. I like Ichigo. He's the kind of person I strive to be: a good brother, selfless when he needs to be, selfless when he can be, and doesn't take shit from _anybody_. Sadly, I'm only two of those things.**

 **So I thought, _What haven't I put Ichigo through yet?_ And then I remembered that RWBY's fifth season is coming out soon and I was like, _Hell to the mother-fuckin' YES!_ I feel like Ichigo and RWBY go very well together, not the least of which because Ichigo's name follows the color-scheme convention that the creators came up with. Ichigo, of course, meaning Strawberry ("It's First Guardian, asshole!"), and Kurosaki meaning Black Penninsula. After that initial brainwave, the ideas flowed. So this will be Ichigo post-Bloodwar, but pre-epilogue tossed into RWBY about right at the beginning. I could have just put that and be done with it, but I'm feeling share-y right now, so there you go. I hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either _Bleach_ or _RWBY_. They were made by folks much more intelligent and creative than I am, and I hope you support the official releases.**

 **Warnings: The usual stuff on my end, swearing, bloody gore, etc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Takin' Care of Business**

* * *

"Kurosaki, there's a job up at Beacon Academy, if you're willing to make the trip."

Ichigo glanced up from his book and leveled a shrewd look at his boss. The man was in his late forties and already completely bald on his crown, with the rest pulled into a graying bun at the back of his head reminiscent of a samurai's topknot. Pinned beneath Ichigo's severe gaze, his forehead began to weep with perspiration despite having upwards of two decades on the former substitute shinigami.

"Why aren't you giving it to someone with more experience?" Ichigo shot back. "Or someone who knows the place? If the school's sending us jobs, then there must be at least one or two people more familiar with it than me."

"Ah, well you see..." the boss chuckled uneasily as he scratched the tip of his bulbous nose, a nervous tick Ichigo had noticed about the man as soon as they'd met. "Not many of our employees want to risk going up to Beacon, even with the hazard pay bonus."

"Hazard pay?" Ichigo repeated, unsure if he'd heard properly. "What the hell kind of school warrants hazard pay for outsourced handymen?"

"It's a Hunter Academy," his employer informed him, and Ichigo hummed in partial understanding. He'd only just started learning about the ins and outs of this world, but nearly everything somehow made its way back to the warriors who kept the Grimm threat at bay. "The kids there get a bit... rowdy, and when Hunters-in-training get rowdy, things start exploding." Boss dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief, then shrugged helplessly. "It's part of the reason Beacon doesn't have any non-teaching staff, since just working there is a danger. Forgive me for asking a foolish question, I'll just inform them to look for someone else."

"Nah, I'll do it," Ichigo waved him off, standing up from the seat he had appropriated during his brief stint as a day-laborer working for the Alternative Staffing hiring agency. "What's the job?"

"Ah..." Boss looked down at the sheet of paper clutched in his hand. "Nothing too major, just a few light fixture replacements in one of the larger training facilities, some leaky showerheads in the first-floor men's lockers, several masonry jobs in the courtyard, and a bit of landscaping around the grounds. You should be done before six."

Ichigo nodded, stretching his back as he snatched the paper up and skimmed it. "Everything provided, ask for Glynda Goodwitch, yadda-yadda. Alright, I'm off."

"Be careful, Kurosaki!" Boss called back, sounding genuinely concerned for Ichigo. The bright-haired young man raised a hand in farewell, resolving to actually learn the man's name; it had been nearly three weeks since they'd met, after all.

By his reckoning, he'd been in this world of Remnant for about a month after he'd made the monumentally stupid decision to assist Geta-Boushi with one of his experiments. The Quincy threat had been dealt with, and the Gotei Thirteen were slowly but surely recovering from the massive losses inflicted upon them. Yuzu and Karin were just starting high school, and Ichigo had been considering taking Shunsui up on that offer of joining the Guard as the Fifth Division's captain after Shinji finally decided that captaincy just wasn't the same after a hundred-odd years of basically being a lazy bum.

It was about the most he could have asked for after the hectic, dangerous, utterly insane ride that characterized his teen years. He could be forgiven for letting his guard down for just a moment. Of course, it seemed the universe had been waiting for that exact lapse in his defense to judo-flip him for another loop.

It might have been a miscalculation on Urahara's part, or perhaps a bug had flown into the hardware and gummed up the works. The most likely contributing factor to the shit-storm, though, was the sake Yoruichi had accidentally dropped on the console (why she had even tried to drink straight from the bottle while still in her cat form was beyond him). Whatever it was, instead of transporting Ichigo directly from the Human World to Rukongai without having to travel through the Dangai or a Garganta, he had instead found himself in a mega-city called Vale, on a planet known as Remnant whose sole natural satellite looked like it had gotten into a fight with Kenpachi Zaraki and lost. Oh, and also humanity and the faunus (bonafide animal people!) had been at war with soulless Hollow look-a-likes for as long as anyone could remember; couldn't forget that little tidbit.

He'd spent the first hour or so simply cursing his shitty luck and Urahara in equal measure—throwing in the Spirit King's name because there was no way that fucker didn't have anything to do with his predicament—before drawing upon Zangetsu's inner calm (well, one part of Zangetsu, at any rate) to center himself and start moving forward.

Ichigo's inital foray into trying to make a life for himself in this new world had ended with mixed results. After realizing that any job he might have applied for required proper identification, he'd tried procuring the proper papers only to be labeled an illegal immigrant who had somehow gotten past the border guard (apparently through nefarious means). It had taken a day in a holding cell and some quick thinking to get him out of that jam, but he'd eventually been cleared and offered legal documentation with which he could find some gainful employment (the one good thing about the creatures of Grimm was that they made for excellent scapegoats when coming up with a false background).

However, he'd spent much of the time a normal teenager would have spent getting proper work experience purifying monsters and stopping hostile takeovers of the Afterlife instead. The only job he was really qualified for (besides curbstomping anyone unfortunate enough to have gotten on his bad side) was cheap physical labor. Ichigo also possessed a wide variety of skills that made him a decent general handyman (due mostly to maintaining the Kurosaki household while his father kept up his role as breadwinner), bolstered by his time working for Ikumi, so at least he had that going for him. He supposed he could try to find work as an orderly, a role he'd filled at the clinic whenever necessary, but Goat-Face had always said that his bed-side manner was positively atrocious (evidently, telling his father that a patient was in dire need of a rectal-cranial extraction in front of the patient was considered a faux-pas).

Incredibly (and he was honestly pretty suspicious about how improbable it was), Ichigo had almost literally stumbled across the owner of Alternative Staffing halfway through a mugging. As a reward for beating back the would-be robbers the grateful man had offered Ichigo a place to live in the tiny, run-down apartment above the workplace and gave him relatively high-paying jobs consistently. It didn't quite go over well with the other regulars, but Ichigo's trusty scowl kept the worst of the backlash away (and a swift kick in the ass took care of the rest).

Thus, Ichigo had fallen into a routine wherein he would wake up, head down to the office with one of the several history books he'd bought second-hand from the nearby Tukson's Book Trade, and wait for the Boss to hand him a job. It was far from ideal, but he had a place to sleep, a more or less steady income, and a way to gather information. He sure as hell wasn't going to keep at it in this vein forever, but he had learned from his mistakes. Ichigo wasn't about to go running headlong into a potentially dangerous situation with no knowledge of what he was getting himself into, at least not for a fourth time.

But he'd spent nearly two months in a state of semi-boredom held off only by the constant surprises this world had to offer, and he figured it was about time he jumped back into things. Where better to do so than at the training grounds for the protectors of this world?

Ichigo grabbed a jacket, making sure his essentials were safely in his pockets, and headed for the nearest airbus terminal. It still amazed him even now how much more advanced this world's technology was compared to his own. The transport and communications were amazing enough, but the first time he'd seen a Hunter's weapon mecha-shift had very nearly caused his jaw to drop at the sheer intricacy and elegance of the design (the white bastard had been snippy for a few days afterward, and the old man more taciturn, but both spirits admitted later that it was pretty incredible).

When he arrived at the school's station, he stepped off the ship and took a moment to absorb the sight of Beacon Academy with its sweeping spires and the majestic tower that soared proudly over Vale like a silent sentinel. Sure, it wasn't as grandiose as the Soul King's palace, or the thoroughly massive affairs of Seireitei and Las Noches, but it had its own unique charm that made Ichigo pause for longer than he'd meant to.

"Ichigo Kurosaki?" a stern voice rang out, and he lowered his eyes to the woman who had called his name. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a bun with a handful curled and left to hang down the right side of her face, while sharp green eyes appraised him from behind a pair of thin glasses. In her hand was a tablet device he'd learned was called a tome, and tucked into her right boot was what looked like some sort of collapsed weapon.

"That's me," he affirmed with a short nod. "Are you Glynda Goodwitch?"

"I am," she replied, gesturing for him to follow her. "I assume you received the bare bones of what your duties today will entail?"

"Swap the lights in the big gym, change the showerheads in the boy's lockers, and fix an assortment of holes on the grounds," he rattled off quickly with a nod.

"Indeed," Goodwitch spared him an approving glance. "Normally I would be the one to handle such matters, but Headmaster Ozpin has seen fit to delegate some of his paperwork to myself and a few of the other teachers here." She hid it well, but the tightening around her eyes told Ichigo that she wasn't too pleased with her boss at the moment. Honestly, he was somewhat reminded of Nanao whenever Shunsui did something exasperating (which was troublingly often for a Captain-Commander). She filled him in on the specifications of his work as they walked, and showed him where the various problems were located, as well as the supplies he would need.

After leading him to the training wing where he would start his first portion of the job, Goodwitch pushed her spectacles up her nose as she inspected him critically. "I hope your employer informed you about the hazardous nature of this particular assignment."

"Yeah, something about Hunters-in-training having a tendency to blow shit up on a regular basis," Ichigo agreed.

"Crudely put," she said dryly, "but true nonetheless. The students here bear no malicious intentions toward you, don't misinterpret that. They are, however, a fairly rambunctious lot, and the fact that we have no permanent custodians, groundskeepers, and other similar positions is a testament to the peril they represent. Do not underestimate the danger you have placed yourself in, Mr. Kurosaki."

"I've been through worse," Ichigo reassured, lips twitching wryly at the sheer understatement of his words. "I'll be fine."

Goodwitch peered at him for longer than he was strictly comfortable with before nodding once. "Very well, I hope your self-confidence will not be your undoing. The insurance premiums are through the roof as it is..."

Muttering to herself about the budget Goodwitch strode off, heels clicking sharply against the floors. Ichigo sighed, then hefted the box of light fixtures he'd brought from the storage room and entered the training area.

Inside was a massive gymnasium with a high ceiling and lots of obviously cutting-edge training equipment, including various work-out machines, several dozen sparring circles where some students were wailing on each other, and even a walled-off zone where a young woman with a bright red ponytail was demolishing robots by the scores. A quick look around alerted Ichigo to a catwalk that ran just under the ceiling where the lights were easily reachable, and quickly scaled the access ladder one-handed while he wrestled with the unwieldly box of Dust rods.

Once he was up there, it was a simple matter to unscrew the depleted rods and replace them with new ones. He even checked the others and swapped out the mostly empty ones as well.

As he made his way back to the ladder, though, instincts honed through countless battles alerted him to danger, and he moved to the right just in time to avoid a fiery slug from below. Ichigo himself was fine, but he'd forgotten to calculate the effects of his dodge on the huge, awkward box full of Shine Dust. It seemed as though the container fell in slow-motion, right above where the red-haired girl was tearing through training bots like tissue paper.

Now, Ichigo wasn't an expert on Dust by any means (even the term 'neophyte' was stretching things), but he knew that Dust generally went boom when mishandled. Being dropped from a few dozen feet up certainly seemed like mishandling to Ichigo, and he didn't want to give Alternative Staffing a bad rep for blowing up Huntresses-in-training.

So he pooled reiryoku into his legs and leapt over the catwalk's railing, snatching Dust rods out of the air as they fell with the speed and precision of a striking cobra. He vaguely heard a couple voices shout out, but ignored them in favor of making sure he didn't land on his face. After grabbing all of the hazardous material, Ichigo flipped himself around and touched down lightly next to the girl who apparently had a grudge against robots.

The girl let out a surprised noise, and her weapon swung around as it shifted from a triangular sword to a long spear. Ichigo ducked under the first sweep and backpedaled quickly to avoid the follow-up stab until he was out of her immediate range before raising an eyebrow at her.

When she realized what it was she'd taken a couple swipes at, the spear lowered and a gloved hand rose to her mouth while her green eyes widened in horror. "I'm sorry!" she gasped. "I thought you were another training dummy."

"It's fine," Ichigo grunted, snatching the cardboard box as it fell into reach. He dumped the Shine Dust back in the container, then looked up to the ceiling. "Do the lights look okay to you?"

"Uh..." She followed his gaze and her face morphed into an expression of disbelief as she put the pieces together. "They seem fine to me," she answered. "Did... did you just fall from the catwalk?"

"I jumped," Ichigo corrected her. "Someone took a shot at me and I dropped the Dust when I dodged. It was gonna fall on you, and I didn't want a write-up, so..." he mimed doing a swan-dive and shrugged.

The girl glanced at the box of Dust, then back at Ichigo. "Then I suppose I should thank you as well," she said, smiling slightly. "I'm Pyrrha."

He was about to give his name when he was interrupted. "Hey, are you alright?" Ichigo turned to the new arrival and was halfway through bobbing his head when he froze. Jogging to a halt in front of him was a girl who looked like she could be Matsumoto's younger sister, except with lighter blonde hair and purple eyes. Beside her was a girl with hair a darker shade of orange than his own and blue eyes that seemed to pop out of her face.

"Fine," he managed through his strangled windpipe. "Just a little tumble."

"Yeah, that was kinda my bad," the Rangiku look-a-like said with an uneasy grin, pulling her long mane over her shoulder. "Me and Nora got a bit too enthusiastic in the sparring ring and one of my rounds went a little wide."

Ichigo's eyes went from the cluster of circles on the far side of the gym to the catwalk he'd been on before finally coming to rest on the blonde girl. "Sure," he drawled sarcastically, "a little wide. It's fine," he added when the girl's lips quirked into a frown. "No harm, no foul. Just be more careful next time; I can see why this job offers hazard pay now."

"Wait, you're a civvie?" the girl named Nora asked curiously. "How'd you survive that fall, then? It was pretty awesome, by the way, when you were grabbing the lights out of the air and then dodged Pyrrha's attacks like they were nothing!"

"For a certain definition of the word, I suppose I am a civilian," Ichigo acknowledged. "And it's nothing special. I bet things like that get taught here on day one."

"Still, sorry for almost making you blow your load on P-Money here," Blondie said with a teasing grin that made her resemblance to the tenth's lieutenant even more pronounced. "I'm Yang, by the way."

"Ichigo," he replied shortly, channeling Toshiro (It's Hitsugaya-taicho, grumbled his inner monologue) to ignore the double entendre and the blushing redhead beside him.

"Nora!" exclaimed the ginger, popping up uncomfortably close to him.

"Right," he said, unflinching. It would take a lot more than that to faze him after all the shit he'd been through. Hell, Orihime's random bouts of silliness and Keigo's particular brand of insanity were more than enough to innoculate him against this girl's spastic nature easily, nevermind his batshit father. "Look, I've still got a few things left to fix, and I don't wanna keep you from your training."

"Oh, um, bye then!" Pyrrha stammered. "And thank you again!"

"Good luck!" Nora exclaimed with a bright grin that reminded him oddly of Mashiro.

"Don't be a stranger!" Yang crooned after him.

With a quick wave, Ichigo high-tailed it out of the gymnasium, hoping to get the shower heads changed before he was used as a target dummy again. After a quick stop back at the supply room, Ichigo made his way to the largest of the first-floor bathrooms.

* * *

Pyrrha Nikos felt an odd shiver of trepidation when she noticed the way Yang Xiao Long was eyeing the maintenance man's retreating back (rather, the lower portion of his back). It was embarrassing enough to have taken a swing at a civilian, let alone one who had jumped nearly twenty meters down to stop a bunch of Dust from hitting her. Whatever the devious blonde had in mind could only spell disaster, if the toothy grin was anything to go by. Granted, Pyrrha had known Yang for less than a month, but the kick-boxer wasn't exactly that difficult to read.

"Nora," Yang said, clenching her fist in front of her dramatically. "We're gonna go follow that guy."

"Why?" Nora asked. Pyrrha almost laughed at how naïve her friend could be before almost choking on it when the orange-haired girl continued. "Is he a leprechaun? Will we get gold if we catch him?" Her eyes sparkled. "Imagine all the pancakes I could buy!"

"I don't think that's the case," Pyrrha tried to correct her, but once an idea got into Nora's head, the only way to get it out was to let it run its course. Which, unfortunately for the rest of Team JNPR, usually ended with massive explosions and significant property damage.

True to form, Nora disregarded her and charged out of the gymnasium, hot on Yang's heels. Pyrrha sighed—resolving to ease up on nagging Ren about what she had at first perceived as his laziness if he'd had to chase after that his whole life—and hurried to follow her friends in an effort to run some damage control.

The redheaded Mistrali caught up to the other two girls just as Yang slammed a terrified and confused Sky Lark up against a wall.

"H-he went in there!" Sky squeaked, pointing to a door a few feet down the hall.

"You sure about that?" Yang asked sweetly while Nora loomed in the background with a crazed gleam in her eye as she fondled Magnhild sinisterly.

"I'm sure!" the poor boy cringed. "I swear on my manhood!"

"Swearing on something that doesn't exist isn't exactly reassuring," the blonde girl smirked, but released her hold on Sky's blazer. He didn't hesitate to run away as fast as possible once he'd been relinquished, but Yang had already turned her attention to the door he'd indicated. Pyrrha, however, grasped her bicep and held her back.

"That's the men's showers," she pointed out. Yang blinked and read the plaque on the wall next to the door, then shrugged and pushed in anyway.

"Nothing I haven't seen before," Yang declared brazenly. Nora was next in with not a care in the world, and Pyrrha—about as uncomfortable as it was possible to be—trailed after them hesitantly.

Pyrrha wasn't sure what she expected out of a boys' locker room, but for it to basically be a carbon copy of its female counterpart was probably what she should have. The only differences were the urinals off to the side of the commode stalls and the blue tiles where red ones were placed in the girls' showers.

Oh, and of course her half-naked partner and team leader. That was certainly not a staple in the women's changing rooms.

"Hey there, Lady Killer," Yang called. Jaune, wearing only a pale blue towel with a white bunny rabbit she recognized as the Pumpkin Pete mascot sewn into it, leapt at least three feet into the air and spun around, nearly losing the towel in the process (much to her private disappointment). Panicking, Pyrrha tried to hide behind Nora, which wasn't the best idea since the grenadier was quite a bit shorter than her.

"Y-Yang!" Jaune yelped, crossing his arms over his chest in what would have been quite a hilarious reaction in any other given situation. "Nora! What are you doing in the guys' showers?"

The redhead almost sighed in relief at apparently being overlooked by her lovably oblivious partner. "Don't forget Pyrrha, too!" Of course, she should have known that Nora would point her out, as unhelpfully helpful as she was.

Feeling her face heat up, Pyrrha waved meekly as she peeked out from behind her only female teammate. "Hello again," she mumbled.

Jaune stood there looking at them blankly for a while, and Pyrrha wondered what he was thinking before he shook his head and rid himself of the momentary shock. "So, to reiterate my question," he began slowly. "What are you doing in here?"

"We're hunting a leprechaun!" Nora explained as if it was obvious.

Jaune blinked several times in confusion. "But then... where are your leprechaun nets?" he asked. "If you're hunting leprechauns, you need nets; haven't you ever seen those cereal commercials?"

Nora, astoundingly, slapped herself on the forehead with an open palm. "Of course," she exclaimed. "How could I have been so stupid!?" And without further ado, Nora took off out the door, calling back that she would return presently with appropriately sized nets.

Turning back to Yang and Pyrrha, Jaune smiled a little. "So why are you really here?"

Yang's eyebrows rose as she processed that. "Pretty slick, there," she complimented, and her accompanying friendly punch to the shoulder staggered him slightly.

"Thanks," Jaune bit out, rubbing his arm. "Our team-building exercises are really starting to come in handy."

"Anyway, to answer your question," Yang said, "we're looking for a guy with light orange hair and a scowl that'd make Goodwitch proud. He's piqued my interest."

"Poor guy," Jaune muttered, smiling nervously when Yang raised her fist again, this time threateningly. "It was a joke, Yang, a joke!"

"I'm the joker in the group, Vomit Boy," she warned. "Stick to your niche and we'll be golden."

"Oh, because we're both blondes," he nodded in understanding. "That's a good one."

"I wasn't making a pun, but okay," she shrugged. "I'll take what I can get."

Jaune frowned, turning to Pyrrha. "Um, so would I regret if I asked what this guy did to make Yang so... uh, interested?"

"I think it's more the fact that he didn't do anything," Pyrrha guessed, turning to Yang. "Right?"

"Right," the buxom girl agreed, slinging an arm around Pyrrha. "See, we're getting along just fine if you can read me like that, P-Money."

"Joy," Pyrrha cheered unenthusiastically. Nora was bad enough... if Yang started on like this, then she would need to join forces with both Ren and Blake in order to put them in check.

"I'm still confused," Jaune announced, raising his hand.

"Well, beyond not caring about Yang almost shooting him off the catwalk in the big gym," Pyrrha said, sending an accusing look at the girl in question who had the grace to grin sheepishly, "he maintained eye contact with her for their entire conversation."

"Even Weiss-cream's got a hard time keeping it above the neckline," Yang added helpfully. "Though that might be out of envy rather than any real interest."

"Well, when you've got them on display like that..." Pyrrha muttered.

"Pot and kettle, Pyrrha," Yang sing-songed with a pointed look at the cleavage her armor revealed. "Pot and kettle."

Jaune went red with embarrassment at the turn this conversation had gone. Before he could respond in any way (which was probably a good thing, Pyrrha thought, since he'd have likely just said something that would earn him a beating from Yang), Ichigo himself strode out of the shower room, holding a bag of tools and several old-looking showerheads.

He stopped short upon seeing them, his frown deepening. Pyrrha wondered idly what he was so angry about for that to be on his face so often. Instead of telling them off as he probably should have, Ichigo turned to Jaune, jerking his chin back toward the showers.

"It's all fixed up in there," he said to the younger man. "I'd suggest waiting until they're out of the lockers before you take off that towel, though. Girls can be just as perverted as guys when the mood strikes them."

"I've got a mood striking me right now," Yang piped up, shooting Ichigo a very suggestive look.

Pyrrha thought she might have seen his eye twitch, but he recovered quickly. "I appreciate the enthusiasm," Ichigo said uncomfortably, "but I'm on the job, and I'm pretty sure fraternizing with one of the students would get me fired."

"Aw, c'mon," Yang purred, sidling up within his personal space. "I could use a nice strong handyman to take a look at my plumbing." Pyrrha was aghast (and just a tiny bit envious) at how forward the blonde was being, and she was even more impressed with how steadfast Ichigo's willpower was to not be swayed even slightly at Yang's shameless attempts at seducing him.

"Listen, Yang was it? I'm flattered that someone as beautiful as you has taken an interest, but there's a time and a place and this is definitely neither," he said, voice gentle but firm in its resolve. "Now, if you'll excuse me I've still got some holes to fill."

Pyrrha blinked when Yang didn't even attempt to twist his last statement into a bit of innuendo and glanced over to find the brawler wearing a thunderstruck expression as her lavender gaze followed him out. Jaune opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a bewildered squeaking noise. Pyrrha turned to see what he was looking at just in time to watch an enormous butterfly net descend upon Ichigo right as he was framed in the doorway.

"Ha! I've got you now, you sneaky little munchkin!" Nora's voice echoed in the locker room.

For a moment, there was silence while they all attempted to absorb the situation. Ichigo turned his head slightly, his scowl gaining an oddly curious tilt. "What are you doing?" he asked, sounding more confused than angry.

"I'm after your lucky charms!" Nora replied succintly, stepping into view. One hand was clutching the net's handle while the other was pumping triumphantly. "Now hand over the gold!"

"...you realize I'm not a leprechaun, right?" His voice was surprisingly even for someone who'd just been assaulted with a giant net.

"That's just what a leprechaun would say," Nora argued. "How can I be sure that you won't run to the Council of Leprechauns as soon as I take free you and report back to them?"

"Leprechauns don't have a council—" Ichigo began, but was cut off instantly.

"Ah-HAH!" the short ginger girl pointed accusingly at him. "How would you know leprechauns don't have a council unless you were one?"

Jaune blinked rapidly, muttering, "That's surprisingly sound logic."

"Don't encourage her," Pyrrha started to nudge him as she whispered, then realized he was still only clad in a towel and drew away while her face heated up again. To hide it, she quickly stepped out of the room and grabbed hold of Nora's arm. "Please stop bothering the handyman while he's trying to work."

"But... but..." her teammate whined petulantly, "what about all the pancakes?"

Ichigo slowly removed the net and offered it back to Nora. "Look, if I was a leprechaun, I'd have a pot of gold, right?" he asked, and she nodded slowly. "So if I had a pot of gold, why the hell would I be working temp jobs?"

The pout on Nora's face slowly morphed into a considering look. "You've got a point," she relented, then smiled ruefully up at him. "Sorry I thought you were a leprechaun. I don't know what I was thinking; you're pretty tall, actually."

"It's fine," Ichigo replied. His scowl softened a bit and the corners of his lips twitched upward a bit, giving him a slightly wistful expression. "Just don't make a habit of it. Not everyone is as understanding as I am."

"Okey-dokey," Nora snapped to attention. "See you later!" And with that, she skipped away down the hall as if nothing untoward had ever even occurred.

There was a moment of silence as they all watched her leave with various levels of bewilderment. Then, Ichigo hefted his supplies and headed in the opposite direction. "Well, duty calls," he said, waving over his shoulder without looking back. "Later."

Pyrrha glanced at Yang, who was staring after him with a complicated expression and bumped shoulders with the blonde. "You alright?"

"Y-yeah," Yang replied, offering her a weak smile. "That's sort of the first time that's happened to me, though. I don't really know what to do."

"Just shake it off and pick yourself up again," Jaune said in a sage-like tone. "It's what I always do, and trust me: I'm an expert at rejection." He chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Heck, that's about the nicest way to let someone down I've ever seen."

Yang's smile became more natural as he spoke, and at the end her bright grin was back in full force. "That's actually pretty awesome advice, Jaune, thanks," she said, patting him on the back.

"No problem," Jaune waved off her gratitude good-naturedly. "It's what friends are for, after all." He blinked a few times, then looked down as if only then remembering he was clad in a towel and nothing more. "A-anyway, if you'll excuse me..."

With that, Pyrrha's leader bolted back into the locker rooms, leaving Yang snickering after him. "That guy's something else," she smirked.

"Yeah, he sure is," Pyrrha sighed longingly, then slapped her cheeks to rid herself of some very inappropriate thoughts and started walking in the direction Nora had taken, hoping Yang hadn't noticed.

* * *

Once Ichigo had finished replacing a few bricks in the courtyard that had either been cracked or come loose and filled in a plethora of divots across the grounds where students had gotten a little too enthusiastic, he reported back to Goodwitch. Oddly enough, she had informed him that the headmaster wished to speak with him before he left, and with nothing better to do, Ichigo complied.

After a brief, silent elevator ride up to to the top of the clock-tower, Ichigo was treated to quite the sight. Massive gears turned both above and below the office, which had a commanding view on all sides through floor-to-ceiling windows. A row of shelves contained both books and strange little knicknacks that drew the attention, and behind a clear desk sat the headmaster of Beacon.

With dissheveled gray hair and brown eyes hiding behind a pair of glasses, he really didn't seem all that important, but Ichigo had learned never to judge a book by its cover (especially after watching Yachiru hand Yumichika and Ikkaku their asses on a plate at the same time).

He appeared to be reading something off a transparent square that was emanating from the desk a bit like a computer monitor, but when the elevator door closed behind him and Goodwitch, Ozpin's eyes locked on his. There was strength behind that gaze, Ichigo noticed immediately, and something ancient and weary that reminded him of the old Soutaichou and a little of Geta-Boushi as well. It instantly put him on edge; men like them were always scheming and plotting, even if they weren't necessarily the 'bad-guys'.

"Ah, yes," Ozpin said, rising from his chair and offering a hand once they were close enough. The former substitute shinigami took it with a nod. "Ichigo Kurosaki, correct?"

"Yeah, and you're Ozpin, though I still dunno whether that's your given name or family name," Ichigo acknowledged, and a tiny little smile appeared on the older man's face.

"I like to keep people guessing," was the enigmatic reply. "Please, have a seat." As Ichigo did just that, Goodwitch moved to stand at her employer's side. "I would like to ask you something, and you may feel free to decline answering." He tapped at the desk a few times, and the screen swung around so it was facing him. "Can you tell me what happened here?"

Ichigo watched the screen and found it was a recording of the incident in the gym. He grimaced at how sloppy he had gotten in the past month. "Nothing major," he shrugged, his mastery of understatement presenting itself well.

"You call falling from such a height and being attacked by one of our top students 'nothing major'? I see," hummed the headmaster.

"I didn't fall," Ichigo bristled at the implied slight to his sense of balance. "One of the students let off a wild shot and when I dodged the Dust fell. For one thing, I figure that stuff's expensive and I didn't want that to come out of my already shitty paychecks. Also, the rods were about to fall on another student and, as it was my fault she was in danger, I decided to rectify that mistake. Pyrrha's reflexes kicked in before her mind registered what she was attacking."

"Ah, that certainly explains things, then," Ozpin nodded in understanding, entering more commands into his desktop. The video changed to him talking with Pyrrha, Nora, and Yang. "What was said here?"

"Yang, was apologizing to me," he explained. "She's the one whose bullet I avoided."

"And you do not bear a grudge against them for their actions?" Goodwitch inquired, her face stoic.

Ichigo's frown deepened at the question. "What's the point in that?" he riposted, waving a hand dismissively. "They didn't do it on purpose, and nothing bad came of it, so I don't see why I should."

"Even if you are a civilian who might have been seriously injured should they have landed a hit?" Ozpin pressed.

"Look, your stupid questions are irritating me more than that whole debacle did earlier," Ichigo snapped. "Even if they struck a blow, I've been through way worse shit from people trying their hardest to kill me. I know when someone comes at me with lethal intent, and neither of them did."

He watched in annoyed confusion as the two traded a glance before Ozpin smiled. "Mr. Kurosaki, I understand that you are employed by a hiring agency?" He nodded warily. "After seeing the quality of your work and your overall demeanor, I would like to extend to you an offer to work for me here at Beacon."

Ichigo's face forgot to scowl for a moment as he blinked owlishly. "Uh... what?"

"As you are no doubt aware, Beacon has quite a deficiency in janitorial and maintenance staff due to the inherent dangers of working in a Hunter Academy." Ozpin strode over to one of the windows, hands linking behind his back as he stared down at his school. "Those with the skills necessary are often too frightened of the ever-present chance of serious injury, while those who might be able to withstand such occurrences would rather move on to more lucrative careers. To find someone with both the expertise and the proper mindset is vanishingly rare and I had hoped to snatch you up before one of the other schools catches wind of you."

As he felt his frown slide back into place, Ichigo considered it. Working at Alternate Staffing had been a means to an end, and though he would be sorry to leave the boss high and dry, this was a damn good opportunity. At the same time, he knew he shouldn't seem too eager to accept.

"What's the pay like?" he asked.

"Fifty lien per hour," Goodwitch answered, glasses flashing (to Ichigo, she looked almost hopeful), "though you will be expected to perform a great many tasks around the school. This will include basic maintenance and upkeep, some light janitorial duties, and most of the inevitable repair work that comes from rambunctious students, though I will handle the more... extensive damages with my Semblance. You will also receive room and board should you wish it."

Ichigo forcefully made sure his eyes didn't bug out at the salary. Most of the jobs he did paid out a scant twelve lien an hour, and most of them weren't more than four hours long. The offer of free food and a place to stay were just the last nails in the coffin of his time as a day-laborer.

He nodded decisively, standing up. "You got yourself a custodian. I'll need a day to set things in order and move some stuff here, but that's it."

Ozpin smiled in acceptance. "I shall have the paperwork drawn up immediately. Glynda, please—" Ozpin broke off as he turned toward his second-in-command, brows knitting in concern. "Glynda, are you quite alright?"

The woman in question was staring out the window, her shoulders shaking lightly. "I'm... I'm fine," she assured in a slightly tremulous voice. "Just a little something in my eye."

"I... see," Ozpin muttered, his raised eyebrow signifying that he clearly did not see. "Very well, then, Mr. Kurosaki. I shall expect you here at seven tomorrow afternoon so you can sign the contract and move into your new place of residence."

Ichigo smirked, offered a little salute and entered the elevator. The first stage of his life in Remnant was over; tomorrow, a new adventure awaited.

* * *

 **After-Action Report:** And that's a wrap. Funnily enough, I knocked this out in about an hour after I got the initial idea for it while I was trying my damndest to eke out a second chapter for **Strawberry Ambitions**. I have several dozen scenes written already for that one, but piecing them together and making a cohesive storyline is like trying to squeeze water out of a fuckin' rock.

So, as with most crossovers involving Bleach, it's all Urahara's fault. But it's also Ichigo's for trusting the self-proclaimed mad scientist with a new invention in the first place. Right now, Ichigo's about nineteen years old and done with high school. He didn't go to college because he decided to take over for Yuzu when her workload at school became too much to handle on top of taking care of the Kurosaki household. Things have more or less become stable in Soul Society, besides Shinji whining about how much he hates paperwork and wanting to quit, so there's nothing really major going on anymore on the Bleach side of things.

As far as the RWBY-verse goes, it's about a month into the school year, and everyone's still getting used to everyone else. Pyrrha's feelings for Jaune have finally solidified from a curious infatuation to an outright crush at this point, and they and Renora are finally starting to get a feel for one another. RWBY is still in that murky territory between Weiss and Ruby's tentative alliance and Blake finally coming out of the kennel (sorry, bad joke), but we all know how much a Type-A person Yang is, so she's been slowly whittling away at everyone's shells with shotgun slugs and brute force.

And then there's the idea that started it all. Ichigo as the Almighty Janitor, almost literally thanks to his status as one of the most powerful Death Gods to have ever walked the planes. Yes, Ichigo does have all his powers (give or take a few that I'm on the fence about, because fuck final Bankai Zangetsu. The shikai is fuckin' rad as fuck, but damn it, KUBO!), and can pretty much one-shot anything in the RWBY-verse on sight. But he's also still in his human body. The prototype that Kisuke was working on was meant to do the same thing that his gate in the Soul Society arc does by converting physical matter into spiritual matter, and shit went sideways.

I'm not going to have Ichigo get his Aura unlocked because that would be ridiculous. I see it this way: Ichigo can access a respectable portion of his reiryoku as a human. We've seen the Visored manifest their zanpakuto and Shinigami perform kido while in Gigai (and Rukia did it while in that faulty one Urahara gave her at that!) so he'll still be kicking ass and taking names like the boss he is. And if things get really crazy, he's still got his badge with him.

Also, yeah, Beacon doesn't have a support staff because, well, Hunters make things explode on a daily basis. It's not their fault, it's just natural. But at the same time, civvies ain't gonna wanna work there for all the hazard pay in the world. It's why we see Glynda on repair jobs all the time. So Ichigo catches a lucky break on that front, and the story begins.

So there you have it. Thanks for reading, I appreciate you all, and have a great day!


	2. And Workin' Overtime

**Author's Note:** Damn you all to hell. Really now, I was expecting a nice easy week doing nothing much besides what I need to in order to keep a roof over my head and bread in my belly and what do I find not even three days after I upload this? Two hundred plus follows, nearly as many favorites and almost two _thousand_ views! How the hell am I supposed to ignore that? And then I get more shit on my other stories and pleas to update? Thanks, now I have to try to get something out or else risk looking like a complete asshole.

Seriously, though, I appreciate you all, and to show my appreciation, I managed to pump out another chapter. It's not quite as long as the first one, but it's still something and that's better than waiting a year or so, right? Also, before I forget, I don't really hate Kubo, and I understand that he was pressured by SJ to finish it up because consumerism! and stuff, it just really frustrates me, and I'm pretty easy to rile up.

 **Disclaimer** and **Warning** still apply from the first chapter.

* * *

Chapter 2: ...And Workin' Overtime

* * *

By the following week, Ichigo had settled into his new job with all the gusto of a young man far too used to adapting quickly to dangerous situations. His office wasn't much to write home about (if he even _could_ ), but it was efficient, and there was a cozy little apartment behind it that was much nicer than the one above Alternative Staffing. He'd managed to get all the supplies organized in a way that allowed him to quickly and easily find whatever it was he needed anywhere across the campus. Apparently, Goodwitch had been forced into the role of maintenance worker thanks to the utility of her Semblance, and she hadn't really used much in the way of tools and other necessities for those not gifted with Telekinesis.

The most difficult aspect of his job wasn't really anything to do with the work itself, however, but the people. Ichigo never really considered himself much of a people-person; his close circle of friends before the whole shinigami business was a testament to that. It seemed, though, that once Yang and Nora had realized he had somehow become the full-time custodian of Beacon, it was all he could do to find time to himself.

Energetic people didn't _really_ bother him as much as he went on about it, otherwise he would have had nothing to do with Keigo whatsoever. Still, having more than one in the same place with their attentions all focused on him was more than a little irritating.

Yang seemed to have decided that rebuffing her advances meant that he was just playing hard to get, since she never failed to find him when work was slow to pester him. Nora, too, had taken up that particular habit, offering to show him how well her warhammer (which was also, coincidentally, a grenade launcher) could break legs every other waking moment of his life. The worst part was that their respective partners, Lie Ren and Blake Belladonna, seemed to encourage the behavior. Ichigo had a sinking suspicion that they only did it to get their bright-haired comrades to leave _them_ alone for a while. It worked worryingly well.

Then, there was Yang's younger sister, Ruby Rose, who had gotten into Beacon two whole years early. It was a sure sign to Ichigo that she must have been a prodigious talent, and it showed when she would fall into an info-dump of technobabble every time he got curious about the mech-shift mechanisms. The little redhead was a legitimate genius when it came to the wondrous weapons, and it showed in the masterpiece that was her scythe that doubled as a high-impact sniper rifle. The fact that she went on and on (and on and on) about it to him more often than Nora waxed lyrical about Magnhild just let him know that she was also a complete nerd about it, too.

Pyrrha, to Ichigo's relief, didn't bother him as much as the others, but she would still sometimes stop to greet him whenever they passed in the halls. However, it was her partner, the blonde kid he'd met in the showers, that caught his attention the most. In the past few days, Ichigo had observed the many Hunters-in-training, along with the teachers themselves, quite closely. They were definitely trained warriors, judging by the way they moved and how they all seemed to have a certain sharpness to their gaze. All, of course, except Jaune Arc.

He was so out of place it was almost laughable, until Ichigo remembered that this was a place where the future protectors of humanity honed their skills to fight monsters. His eyes were always uncertain, despite apparently being the leader of his four-person team. The few times Ichigo had watched Jaune train were very close to physically painful to witness. His form was sloppy, his strikes were pitiful (at _best_ ), and his shield handling was atrocious. Jaune's only saving grace was that his footwork was paradoxically incredible, and his movements were actually very graceful, though it was more in the way a dancer was than a fighter.

It confused the hell out of Ichigo for a while that even Ruby was more skilled than Jaune despite the two-year age gap. It also didn't help when Ichigo had spotted some well-armored student with orange hair straight-up bullying the blonde, and he was taken back to the days before he was the gruff punk who didn't take shit from anyone and kids would routinely pick on him because he was different.

Ichigo almost brought it up to the other teachers one morning during a faculty meeting (and why _he'd_ been asked to attend was anyone's guess). Almost, but the words didn't quite make it out of his mouth when he realized that perhaps there were some extenuating circumstances he might not be aware of, something that could have been construed as some _faux pas_ in this world's customs. So he held his tongue and headed off on his rounds through the campus.

It was during lunch on the tenth day of his official employment when the first incident at Beacon occurred. He had been sweeping up some spilled food in the large dining hall when a cry of pain brought his attention to a girl with long brown hair and a matching pair of tall rabbit ears. Crowding around her were Jaune's bully and his team, with the orange-haired boy yanking on her ears brutally.

"See?" he guffawed loudly to a kid with a mohawk. "I told you they were real."

"What a freak," came the reply.

Ichigo glanced around, waiting for someone to interfere, and was mildly disappointed (but not surprised) when none of the other students spoke up in the girl's defense. _Bystander syndrome in action_ , he though bitterly. He had been a victim of it himself, and the only person to have ever done something to help was Tatsuki (though he was fairly sure that the first time had only been because she was just a belligerent contrarian by nature).

So, in typical Kurosaki manner, Ichigo strode up right up to them and loudly said, "Oi, cut it out." Simple, to the point, and also quite able of silencing the entire mess hall in an instant.

For a moment, the boys seemed taken aback at the interruption. Then Orange scoffed and jerked a thumb at the girl, who was looking at them both with wide eyes. "Why? She's just some dumb animal."

Ichigo had to grit his teeth to avoid knocking this idiot kid's block off. "Faunus aren't any less sapient than humans, brat," he snapped angrily. "And even if that were the case, what sort of overcompensating little punk intentionally harms animals in the first place?"

Orange turned fully to face Ichigo, rising fury mingling with utter bewilderment on his face as a few snickers were heard in the dining area. "Look, Mr. Janitor," he sneered. "I don't know what your problem is, but you should butt out before you get hurt."

"By who?" Ichigo asked, feigning ignorance. "I doubt you and your little posse of barely-pubescent boys could so much as give me a nosebleed."

With a snarl of outrage, the other three jumped to their feet. Orange bared his teeth in an ineffectual effort at intimidation. "You know that hitting a civilian is just fine if the Huntsman was provoked into it, and I'm sure everyone here will agree that you're pushing it."

"No doubt," Ichigo agreed. "I bet you four could rub all two of the brain cells you've got between you to come up with a decent lie."

With four strangled roars, Orange and his compatriots attacked.

Ichigo smile felt reminiscent of the White Bastard's.

* * *

Jaune Arc was a pretty underwhelming person, and he was realistic enough to admit it. For the last month or so, he had been regretting his decision to fake his way into Beacon Academy more and more as the days passed. His team was amazing, his friends in RWBY as well, and he was learning quite a bit about Grimm and history that he probably never would have learned at a civilian college.

But the fact remained that he was a barely competent fighter at his best, and his inadequacy was hammered home every time he saw one of the other students fight. Sure, he'd survived initiation by the skin of his teeth, but that was more to do with Pyrrha saving his bacon, unlocking his Aura, and keeping him alive long enough for the others to enact a plan he'd come up with on the fly than any actual talent. His bout with Cardin earlier that day didn't help matters, especially since he'd seen Ruby hand the armored jerk his ass without breaking a sweat a few days before that.

For a while, he toyed with the idea of asking his friends to help train him, but they had enough on their plates as it was without adding his own woes. He certainly couldn't ask any of the teachers because that would lead to questions which might expose his lies and end up with him in jail or something. Using ViewTube tutorials on how to exercise and get better at fighting only led to disappointment and strained muscles.

It was as he was on the way to bus his tray at lunch a month or so into the school year that Jaune found the perfect solution to his problems. He'd lost his appetite after finding himself willing but unable to help Velvet with Cardin's harrassment, but a clear, calm voice stopped him halfway to the trash cans.

"Oi, cut it out."

Four words (three if you didn't count interjections), and the whole room fell silent. Jaune had seen the new custodian around the past week as he'd done his duty with a sort of grim determination that impressed Jaune greatly. Yang, Ruby, and Nora seemed to enjoy bugging him, but Jaune hadn't heard anything about Ichigo getting angry with them (though he frequently heard Yang gush about how adorable the guy looked when he was annoyed). To be honest, Jaune had already put him out of his mind until that day.

After dressing Cardin and his team down with simple, yet scathing remarks, CRDL jumped into action. Jaune watched in morbid fascination as the push-broom in Ichigo's hand became a deadly weapon, whirling about with enough force to drop every single member of the all-male team before anyone even had a chance to take out their scrolls and start recording. Russel went down first, his olive hair dissheveled and parted oddly by the broom's bristles as it struck him over the head, followed quickly by Sky, who got his legs literally swept out from under him with a quick flick of Ichigo's wrist. Cardin and Dove attempted to double-team him when they saw their teammates drop, and while Ichigo was distracted by whacking Cardin across the face with the handle, Dove managed to crack Ichigo in the side of the mouth with his armored elbow as the orange-haired janitor leaned away from it, only to get flipped over Ichigo's shoulder and the metal-clad young man's head met with his leader's, sending them both into unconsciousness.

It was as marvelous a thing as Jaune had ever seen. A civilian had just taken out an entire team of Huntsment (albeit ones still in training) with a cleaning implement. And the only injury Ichigo had received in turn was a split lip and slightly bruised jaw.

Snorting in annoyance as he dabbed at the blood, Ichigo began to pull CRDL over to the wall and then continued sweeping as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. A buzzing noise filled the cafeteria as everyone began talking at once, but it was silenced once more by none other than Glynda Goodwitch as she burst through the doors. Her wintergreen eyes zeroed in on the unconscious forms of her students before turning to Ichigo.

"Mr. Kurosaki, would you care to explain what I just witnessed on the security cameras?" she asked pointedly.

"Just doin' my job," Ichigo replied with an impressive amount of nonchalance, considering Goodwitch was leveling her patented 'soul-crushing glare' at him.

"And what part of your duties involve assaulting an entire team of students?" the deputy head challenged, her voice rising steadily.

Ichigo, to Jaune's (and likely everyone else's) astonishment, actually _smirked_ at her. "Taking care of the trash, Ms. Goodwitch, nothing more."

Goodwitch deliberately closed her eyes, rubbed her temples, then lifted Team CRDL in her Semblance. "I will deal with them for now, but you and I will be having words about this," she warned.

The custodian's eyes narrowed as he nodded. "I look forward to it," he said levelly. "Maybe you can explain to me why such blatant bigotry is allowed here; it must be some cultural difference I don't understand."

With a reluctant sigh, Goodwitch turned and left the dining area, and after a moment Ichigo finished sweeping and departed as well, leaving most of the students within stunned at the display and Jaune's mind whirling with possibilities.

He was quite distracted for the rest of the day, barely hearing a word of Doctor Oobleck's lecture about Captain Legume's doomed assault on Palace Mansion as he tried to come up with a plan of action. Even Cardin's pestering didn't bother him enough to sway his mind from its task, such was the zeal of his focus until eventually, the school day came to a close. After making sure Nora ate an actual dinner that didn't consist (solely) of pancakes, gently bullying Ren into getting a shower in before he collapsed in his bed (because he surely wouldn't wake up in time for one the next morning), and adamantly stopping Pyrrha from logging her twenty-third hour in the training simulator that week ("All work and no play makes Pyr a dull girl."), Jaune was ready.

Ichigo's office was actually within the dormitory building itself on the ground floor, and according to Nora led into a small apartment where the custodian lived. Jaune hesitated for a moment, his anxiety preying on him mercilessly, but he shook it off and knocked loudly.

To his surprise, it was Professor Goodwitch who answered. "Mr. Arc," she acknowledged with a small nod. Then she turned back inside, where Ichigo was standing near a small desk and said, "I suppose we'll continue this discussion later, Ichigo. Once again, I apologize for earlier today."

"It's fine," the orange-haired man brushing off her apology, his seemingly constant frown easing slightly. "Have a good night, Glynda."

With a departing wave to the both of them, the deputy headmistress of the school left down the hall and out of sight. Which left Jaune by himself with Ichigo. Suddenly, his whole plan seemed pretty stupid, and he almost left.

"So, Jaune, was it?" Ichigo's voice drew his attention back into the room. "Anything you need?"

"I-I...that is to say—" Jaune stammered, his brain locking up and leaving him unable to say much of anything.

"Well, spit it out, man," the custodian grumbled, scowl back in full force. "I've got a busy day tomorrow."

Jaune closed his mouth and eyes before taking a deep breath, then let it out in a whoosh and steeled himself. "Mr. Kurosaki, sir," he practically shouted, bowing at the waist like he'd seen pupils do to masters in old fighting movies. "Please, teach me to fight!"

Seconds ticked by with no response, and Jaune chanced a glance up to find Ichigo looking positively baffled. "Uh, you want me to... huh?"

"I saw you take down Cardin and his team at lunch earlier today," Jaune explained, still bent over. "I... I _wanted_ to do something to stop him from pulling on Velvet's ears, but I... I'm just not _strong enough to do anything_." He clenched his eyes shut so the tears wouldn't fall as all of the frustration and misery that accompanied his thoughts since he'd started at Beacon—no, since long before that—welled up within him like a rising tide of despair. "I need to be better, and I want you to be the one to help me."

This time when he looked up, Ichigo was wearing an unreadable expression, but his gaze was sharp as he inspected Jaune. It was like being dissected and observed through a microscope, and Jaune fought his body and its natural response to squirm under such scrutiny.

Finally, Ichigo jerked his head and said, "Come inside, we'll talk about it there."

Letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, Jaune straightened up and hurried inside. The office was small, but not cramped, and incredibly tidy (though that was probably to be expected from someone whose job was keeping the school clean and running smoothly). As Jaune closed the door, Ichigo headed to another at the back of the room.

"C'mon, I've got dinner cooking," Ichigo beckoned. Within was a sitting room that had a table, a chair, and a sofa arranged around a simple holovision set. To the left was an unobstructed entryway that opened into a kitchen-slash-dining room where another table and a few chairs rested with the usual kitchen stuff. There was a door off to the side of the sofa where Jaune assumed the bathroom was, and another that likely led to the bedroom. It was all pretty plain, obviously, due to Ichigo having only been a resident here for about a week or so. There were a few personal touches, like a well-stocked bookshelf near the sitting room chair, and a picture frame that held a few pencil-drawn portraits of a pair of girls and an older couple who bore a strong resemblance to Ichigo, along with others who must have been friends of his.

As Jaune stepped further into the apartment, the smells of cooking rice and curry filled his nostrils, and he drifted toward the dining table to find Ichigo at the stove, making himself a plate.

"Before I agree to anything," Ichigo said, gesturing for Jaune to sit down even as he did so himself. "I need you to confirm something for me, though you being here pretty much does that anyway. You were never trained to fight, am I right?"

"N-not really," Jaune admitted. "When I was little, my dad tried to teach me how to be a Huntsman, but I was always blowing him off to play with my sisters."

Ichigo nodded, taking a few bites of his food as he listened. "So then how the hell'd you manage to find yourself at a school like this?"

Jaune paused to gather his thoughts so he could tell the story properly without messing anything up. "About a year ago, I was all set to head off to some regular college, maybe find a girl and settle down or whatever," he began, smiling ruefully at his naivete even as he fought back the water-works again. "Then the Grimm attacked my village and killed everyone there."

He said it as bluntly as possible to lessen the ache in his chest, even if it didn't dull the pain in the slightest. In his peripheral vision, he saw Ichigo grimmace, but he pressed on. "I had been away, taking campus tours of different schools, so when I came back to find everything had been ruined..." He drew a shaky breath as visions of the half-destroyed house swam to the forefront of his mind. "The only thing I could salvage was my dad's old sword, and in that moment I knew what I had to do."

"Fake your way into a school designed to teach kids to kill monsters?" Ichigo guessed, and it was Jaune's turn to wince at how close he'd gotten to the truth.

"Pretty much," Jaune agreed despondently, trying and failing to smile sheepishly. "I managed to find a forger and got some false transcripts, and somehow was able to luck my way through the initiation. But even after I've pushed myself half to death to catch up to the others, I just can't seem to even get close, no matter how hard I try. I don't wanna bother my friends; they've got enough to worry about without having to baby me. And if the teachers find out I can't fight I'll be kicked out." He raised his eyes to meet Ichigo's inscrutable scowl. "I was never an exceptional guy, always just average at best. But I can't be that here, or else I'll never become a Huntsman. I want to help people, to be a hero, so that I can stop what happened to me from happening to someone else. That's why... that's why I need your help to become strong."

Ichigo held his gaze for a long moment, dark eyes seeming to search for something within his own. When the scowl deepened Jaune nearly faltered, but just managed to keep from wavering. Finally, Ichigo sighed, closing his eyes as he shook his head and let out a brief chuckle.

"Okay." The word sent Jaune's spirits soaring up higher than Ruby and Weiss when they'd hitched a ride on that Nevermore (and he was still unable to get a satisfactory answer whenever he asked how they'd actually gotten there in the first place). "I'll make stronger, teach you to fight, even help you figure out a style all your own. On one condition."

Jaune cringed, wondering what that condition was. "Y-yeah?"

"You need to tell your friends what's going on," Ichigo said.

"W-what! Why?" Jaune queried as his heart began to thunder. "I-if they find out..." He trailed off as he considered exactly what _would_ happen if they learned about his less-than-legal acceptance into Beacon.

"The only way to become truly strong," Ichigo's voice cut through his thoughts forcefully. "The _only_ way you'll learn to respect that strength is to understand what it is you're fighting for. You can spout all that grandiose bullshit about not wanting others to feel the way you felt after your family died, and it might even be true... but the only way to gain power without it corrupting you is to remember that you're doing it for the people you care about." Jaune stared with wide eyes at Ichigo, who looked like he knew a thing or two about such matters. "Your friends and your team are the ones you're trying to protect now that your family is gone," Ichigo continued more softly. "Plus, I think you're worrying over nothing anyway."

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked, curious despite himself.

"Your team is Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha, right?" When Jaune nodded, Ichigo snorted. "Those three really care about you, Jaune. I dunno what it is you've done, but you've earned their loyalty. Trust me, I have to listen to Nora prattle on about how much she loves her new friends whenever she breaks into my place, and Pyrrha's never had a bad thing to say about you whenever we talk."

"And Ren?"

Ichigo shrugged at that, looking almost nostalgic. "I don't talk much to Ren, but he reminds me a lot of an old friend of mine. The strong, silent type, y'know? But I can see the respect there."

Jaune gulped, then bobbed his head. "Alright. I'll tell them once I get back to the dorm." He scratched his head as he considered something, then asked, "Should I tell Ruby and her team, too?"

"Ruby, at least," Ichigo confirmed, an odd smile breaking through the frown. "She talks about you almost as much as Pyrrha does. And I guess Yang, too, if you want. I'm pretty sure you and Blake don't really interact much, and I don't know much of anything about the other one... Ice?"

"Weiss," Jaune corrected with a dreamy sigh as his snow angel drifted through his mind before shaking it away reluctantly. "Yeah, I don't think she'd take it that well."

"Okay, then," Ichigo said, finishing off his dinner and standing up to put the plate in the dishwasher. "You go do that, and I'll figure how we're gonna do this. If you want, you can drop by tomorrow and show me your schedule so I can work out when we'll meet up for training."

Jaune rose to his feet as well, only to bow once more. "Thank you so much for this, Mr. Kurosaki. I don't know how I'll ever repay you."

"Enough with that shit," the custodian's tone sounded exasperated. "This ain't some kung-fu wuxia movie, and I ain't a wise old master. Call me Ichigo. And if you really want to repay me, tell Nora to stop picking the locks to my doors and just knock like a normal person."

"Uh... alright, Ichigo," Jaune tested the word out. "I dunno if she'll listen to me, though. I guess I'll take off, then?"

"Sure, I'll walk you out."

Jaune didn't quite remember the journey back to his dorm, but as he stopped off at the RWBY dorm and brought Ruby over to his team's room, Jaune knew that he was going to have his work cut out for him.

* * *

 **After-Action Report:** Okay, so now we see the actual reason why I wanted Ichigo in the school in a non-teaching role: Jaune needs someone to show him the ropes, and before the Jaundice arc, he was pretty stubborn about who he wanted to go to for help, even though he _knew_ he needed it. In my opinion, the canon blow-up at Pyrrha after she offered didn't really have anything to do with some dumb machismo thing, but him getting slapped in the face by all his worries and anxieties by someone he thought he could trust. Granted, he's an idiot, but seventeen-year-olds are just like that.

A lot of this plot thread where Ichigo trains Jaune will be greatly influenced by a marvelous fanfiction called _Swinging Pendulum_ by **cywscross _._** Now, she doesn't upload anymore on this site, and all her stories were deleted thanks to some ass-hat threatening her for updates (I can sympathize), but you should check her out on AO3. My writing has been heavily impacted by hers, and they're out of this freakin' world. But I digress. In _Swinging Pendulum_ , Ichigo is sent back in time to a little before the events of the _Turn Back the Pendulum_ arc in canon, and he ends up tutoring a student at the Academy to make up for his shitty kido grades. If you've read **cywscross _'_** story, you'll probably see where I'm headed with this. Jaune _will_ become a badass, and much sooner than he would have in canon, but there will be no easy going; by the time Forever Fall comes around he'll wish he'd just asked Pyrrha.

On the note of why Ichigo didn't get into trouble for assaulting a bunch of students, he's technically a civilian without aura, as far as the law is concerned, and while there were repercussions job-wise (he took a ten lien pay-cut and got a slap on the wrist), the only real consequence that'll come from this is Cardin being pissy about it. Ichigo really doesn't care on both counts as long as it means stopping such a naked display of racism and bullying.

I may or may not eventually write something from Glynda's POV that covers what they talked about before Jaune interrupted (and no, it wasn't anything shippy or whatever), but that'll be later on. Basically, she was telling him how seriously fucked up the situation with faunus is and how any act from a teacher that stopped something like that would be construed as favoritism from a well-known Beacon teacher. Ichigo then countered that he's neither respected, nor an instructor and to send any problem students his way. There will be more on that later.

Jaune's backstory is something I've pieced together over the course of my love-affair with RWBY. To me, it's the only thing that makes enough sense to matter, and I'm sticking to it. Where was his family during the Vytal festival? Why didn't he head home instead of gallivanting through Mistral with RNJR? Why was he so devastated by Pyrrha's death (besides the obvious)? Because his family died before the start of the series. Boom. One and done. Also, it hits Ichigo right where it hurts and gives them something to commiserate over, although Jaune's circumstances are a little more... _Grimm_ than Ichigo's. (I'm not sorry.)

Next chapter will probably have a Blake POV in it, because curiosity killed the cat and satisfaction brought it back. Any questions, comments, outright hateful remarks, and otherwise are all welcomed and appreciated. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for all the support this has already garnered, and I hope you all have a most excellent day!


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